Pampering the Pets

Pampered Pets Will Bring You Lots of Love

Category: Ferrets

Ferrets are often considered a rare pet to own because most individuals choose dogs, cats, birds, or fish to complete their family. A select few have adopted the ferret because of its social, playful, and curious qualities. Ferrets love to play and explore not only with others and their owners, but also on their own. For this reason, there are some basic rules you need to know about taking care of a ferret.

First, you will want to ferret proof your home before you introduce them as pets. They will crawl into walls, furniture, and anywhere they can get their little bodies. It is much like childproofing a home for a baby. You will want to make sure all of the dangers are eliminated when you allow them out of their cages for playtime.

Ferrets are also biters. The kits, baby ferrets, tend to bite more especially when they are teething. You can eliminate the problem or tone it down with frequent handling. It is a sign of their behavior as mock fighting or sparring. The younger ferrets when they bite do not mean any harm. For this reason, you will want to handle the ferret or ferrets as often as possible to help reduce the biting behavior. Often those who do not take the time or patience to train their ferret end up leaving the animal in its cage and thus it has a shorter lifespan. Please make sure you are up to the task of training a ferret before bringing one into your home. Trained properly they can be as great a pet as cats or dogs.

A ferret’s lifespan is usually six to ten years, however proper care and feeding can lead to a little longer life. Ferrets are carnivores so they require a high protein diet. Most owners decide to feed their ferret’s mice, rats, rabbit, and other raw meats such as chicken. Stores carry other types of ferret food that many owners choose over the live food. Carefully reading the food label will tell you if it contains the proper high protein diet. For example, most kitten food can be used because it is designed to be high protein for growing cats.

While play is an important part of your ferret’s life so is sleep. Much like cats, most ferrets spend fourteen to eighteen hours a day sleeping. The role of sleeping is to rejuvenate them from the active play life they have. They love to explore and to play with toys. Many pet stores have toys for ferrets, or you might have something around the house that your ferret will find appealing.

The type of cage is important. Ferrets tend to be very smart so you will need a cage they can get plenty of air, but with bars small enough that they cannot break out. You will also want to clean the cage once or twice a week depending upon the number of ferrets you have and how dirty the cage is. Ferrets are burrowers so some type of bedding is required.

Ferrets are little balls of fur that love to play and interact with humans and each other. While there are some special concessions you need to make to have a ferret the results are worth it. Proper training as a kit will give you even more joy when they reach adulthood. To learn more about ferrets check out Pet Territory.